Page 25 of The Marriage Debt
‘Because you’re scowling something dreadful,’ Jenny responded frankly. ‘You’ll end up with terrible lines on your forehead if you carry on so.’
‘I am a little concerned about things,’ Katherine began mildlyenough. ‘And I would like to discuss them with Mr Lydgate – who appears to be going to some lengths to avoid talking to me.’ She felt her anger rising as she spoke about it. ‘I have no idea what to expect when we reach his family home. He just whisked me away from London and all I know for certain is that he parted on very bad terms with his father.’
‘You want to know all about his family and what his plans are. Of course you do Miss Katherine, it’s only natural.’ She fell silent, then suddenly remarked, ‘I have a headache.’
‘There is somesal volatilein my reticule,’ Katherine offered, ‘Or we could bathe your temples with lavender water, if I can recall where I packed it.’
‘No, thank you. I know what I need, fresh air.’ Jenny tugged the check string and when the horses came to a halt jumped down without waiting for one of the men to open the door for her. ‘John,’ she called up, ‘I have a terrible headache, I think I would be much better if I could sit up on the box with you in the fresh air for a while. Would it be a terrible inconvenience for you to change places, sir?’
A few minutes later, in a flurry of skirts and with a wink to her mistress, Jenny was settled on the box and Theo was climbing into the carriage. ‘A decided young woman,’ he remarked.
‘Yes,’ Katherine agreed, uncertain whether that remark held an element of criticism. ‘She and John have both been wonderfully loyal to me since our situation became so bad. I have no idea how I would have managed without them, and half the time I was in arrears with their wages.’
‘Devoted servants are–’
There was a gunshot from outside, then another. The horses plunged to a halt throwing Katherine across the coach to land in Theo’s arms. She scrambled back only to find herself thrust firmly behind him on the seat when she tried to look out of the window.
‘What is it?’
‘Highwaymen, two I think. Damnation, both pistols are on the box with John.’ There was shouting from outside, the sound of John’s voice raised in protest and another shot.
‘Jenny…’
‘Hopefully they’ll both have the sense to do as they are bid and won’t put up any resistance. Yes, they are both all right: they have just climbed down. Where’s the money?’
‘All over the place – some in my reticule, you have some, John has the rest I think. I never thought to hide it.’
Only minutes had passed since the first shot, but it seemed like hours. ‘Well, we must just put a good face on it and hand it over,’ Theo began, then he grinned. ‘Perhaps not. Kat, take off your pelisse. Good, now, get rid of that fichu or whatever it is and tug down the front of your gown a little.’
‘What?’
‘More, like this.’ His fingers were warm on her skin. ‘Off with that bonnet, far too respectable. Unpin your hair, no I’ll do it. Good, now follow my lead.’
Katherine saw one of the highwaymen approaching the carriage door. The other had moved John and Jenny at gunpoint to the side of the road. She glanced down and was shocked at the amount of swelling bosom Theo’s treatment of her neckline had produced.
He threw open the door and jumped down before the man had a chance to reach it, then turned to swing Katherine down beside him, apparently unconcerned by the threatening long-nosed pistol pointed at them.
‘Good day, mate.’ He grinned and Katherine realised with a shock that his voice had coarsened. ‘This is a turn up and no mistake, eh, Katy?’
‘What? Don’t you try no nonsense, just hand over the dibs.’ The man waved the pistol threateningly.
‘Now then, cullies,’ Theo raised his voice so it could be clearly heard by the second man. ‘This is no way to treat one of your own.’
The nearest man squinted at Theo. ‘What’cher mean? I don’t recognise you and I know all the lads on the bridle lay round here.’
‘Never heard of Black Jack Standon?’
Katherine stifled a gasp. Surely he couldn’t hope to get away with it?
‘Yeah, what of it? Everyone’s heard of him. Since the news reached here no-one’s talked of anything else in the taproom. Cut down from the gallows alive at Newgate so they say. Don’t say why…Bloody hell!’
Theo dragged at his neck cloth and pulled open his shirt. The vicious ring around his neck had developed more colours since the hanging, and if it was now less swollen it was certainly no less dramatic.
‘You? You’re Black Jack? How did you get off, then?’
‘All due to my clever little Katy here,’ Theo put an arm around Katherine’s shoulders and pulled her to him. ‘She found the clergyman who’d testified in court to my lifting his cash box and gave him a night to remember, didn’t you, sweetheart?’
Chucked under the chin Katherine managed a smile she hoped looked suitably saucy.
